UPDATE: I don't mean to be too critical. Asking your customers to evaluate and rank the importance of the software before you build it - to set a vision - to enable people to make tradeoffs that align with your vision - is a good thing. It's when you try to take these better-than-nothing guesses and make them feel like science - feel like proof.

I am especially leery when people drag out the summation symbol (it's a big capital E) from 1 to n of f(n) divided by n, using impressive looking graphics.

I look at the symbol and think "Hey, dude, why not just say the average of?" - especially when the text doesn't even bother to say "This symbol is the average of the values."

When I reach the point, I begin to suspect that the authors are preying on the math-illiterate.